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It’s not quite New Years Eve yet, but I figured it was time to try some champagne in a sourdough bread anyway. What goes better with champagne than some orange juice? (I hate strawberries so that was not an option!). I added some dried blood orange peel to the starter and the final dough to add some nice fruity flavor.

I created a durum semolina starter and used durum flour along with some KAF French Style flour for the final dough.

The end result was a nice slightly sour bread with orange and champagne overtones. The crust came out nice and crisp with a moist crumb.

Durum Starter

227 grams Durum Flour (KAF)

71 grams AP Seed Starter

4 grams Blood Orange Peel

151 grams Water at Room Temperature (80-90 degrees F.)

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 8 hours. The starter should almost double when ready to proceed. You can either mix in final dough or put in refrigerator for at most 1 day before using.

Main Dough Ingredients

425 grams Starter from above

275 grams Durum Semolina Flour

200 grams French Style Flour (KAF)

35 grams Potato Flour

25 gram stabilized Wheat Germ (KAF)

16 grams Sea Salt or Table Salt

29 grams Harvest Riesling Vinegar

25 grams Olive Oil

10 grams Blood Orange Peel

375 grams Champagne (Room temperature)

Procedure

Mix the flours, stabilized wheat germ and orange peel with the champagne in your mixer or by hand for 1 minute. Let it rest covered in your bowl for 20 minutes. Next cut the starter into small pieces and put in bowl and also add the oil and salt. Mix for 4 minute to incorporate all the ingredients. The dough should form a sticky ball at the end of 4 minutes mixing.

Next take the dough out of the bowl and place it on your work surface. Do a stretch and fold and rest the dough uncovered for 10 minutes. After the rest do another stretch and fold and cover the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes. Do one more stretch and fold and put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and let it sit at room temperature covered for 2 hours. After 2 hours you can put the dough into the refrigerator for 24 hours or up to 2 days before baking. Feel free to do some additional S & F’s if you feel it is necessary. I baked the bread about 14 hours later.

The next day (or when ready to bake) let the dough sit out at room temperature for 1.5 – 2 hours.

Next, form the dough into your desired shape and put them in floured bannetons, bowls or on a baking sheet and let them rise covered for 2 hours or until they pass the poke test.

Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

Set your oven for 500 degrees F. at least 30 minutes before ready to bake. When ready to bake place the loaves into your on your oven stone with steam and lower the temperature immediately to 450 degrees. When both loaves are golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. you can remove them from the oven.

Let the loaves cool down for at least an 2 hours or so before eating as desired.